NZ Post doesn't want customers

That's the clear message that you get from the way it conducts itself nowadays.  Although e-mail is rapidly replacing paper letters, shopping on the Internet is creating a lot of new parcels business, so why doesn't this organisation start trying to demonstrate that it is worthy of getting it?  Or does the boss of NZ Post, Brian Roche, want his multi-million dollar "exit package", as is customarily given to chief executives who turn big businesses into "train wrecks"?

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A letter to the editor of the Dominion Post, published on Saturday:

Thank heaven that NZ Post is not also in charge of e-mail

Recently, NZ Post closed its Miramar shop, leaving Kilbirnie with the only full postal and Kiwibank service in the eastern suburbs. Last week, I called in to find a queue spilling out on to the footpath. Inside it was bedlam. The three staff (one in training) were doing their best, but they were obviously under serious pressure.

I returned the next day, 10 minutes before opening. Twelve people had the same idea and were waiting on the footpath.

Staff told me the chaos was common and the job had turned into a nightmare.

This ridiculously small shop services Hataitai, Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai, Strathmore, Miramar, Seatoun, Karaka Bays, Worser Bay, Beacon Hill and Breaker Bay. Miramar private postal boxes are now housed in a converted shipping container parked in front of a Miramar Ave service station. It faces south and is open to all weathers. What fun it must be clearing a box in a howling southerly and driving rain.

NZ Post is out of touch. Its decision to close the Miramar shop defies logic. The result is a disgrace. But there is a bright side. We can all be thankful NZ Post has little control over electronic mail.

WAYNE WILKEY
Karaka Bays